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Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Road of Gathering, Exodus, and Salvation.

“In the beginning,” states Lumen Gentium,
the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “God made
human nature one and decreed that all His children, scattered as they were,
would finally be gathered together as one” (par. 13). God’s plan of salvation
involves being liberated from sin and death. It also involves being liberated
from that place to this place, of being moved from one state in life to a
radically new one.

The prophet Jeremiah, writing during the Assyrian exile, which began around 740
B.C., pointed toward a time when the faithful return to the Promised Land and
the Temple. “Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north,” the
Lord declared through the suffering prophet, “I will gather them from the ends
of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst…” This is one of many
Old Testament passages describing such a gathering. Today’s Psalm expresses the
hopeful expectation of exodus from exile, “when the Lord brought back the
captives of Zion.”

Israel’s history was deeply shaped by captivity, exile and
exodus. The Exodus from Egypt was a formative event for the Jewish people. Most
first-century Jews believed that the Messiah, the “anointed one,” would gather
together the scattered people of God. Those who heard Jesus announcing the
Kingdom of God heard the promise of a renewed Davidic kingdom marked by
political and cultural autonomy.

But, as Lumen Gentium
explains, the focus of the Messiah’s regathering was not national boundaries
and political power. “It was for this purpose that God sent His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, that he might be teacher, king and priest of all,
the head of the new and universal people of the sons of God” (par. 13). Jesus,
the heir of David, would conquer sin and death. Jesus, the high priest, would
sacrifice himself for the sake of the world. The entire world was in exile in
the realm of sin, and the Messiah—who was also a new Moses—would lead the
people of God in an exodus from the darkness of spiritual slavery into the
light of salvation.

Jesus, in announcing the Kingdom of God, notes Fr. Robert
Barron in The Priority of Christ (Brazos Press, 2007), “was not calling attention to general,
timeless spiritual truths, nor was he urging people to make a decision for God;
he was telling his listeners that Yahweh was actively gathering the people of
Israel and, indirectly, all people into a new salvific order, and he was
insisting that his hearers conform themselves to the new state of affairs.” The
son of David was gathering the lost, the wounded, the lame, and the blind, and
he continues to gather them into the Church, which is “God's reaction to the chaos
provoked by sin” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 761).

The encounter between Jesus and the blind man, heard in
today’s Gospel, is a microcosm of this gathering. It took place on the cusp of
the Passover, as Jesus made his way with the crowds going to Jerusalem to
celebrate the Passover—the feast marking the Exodus. The blind man, Bartimaeus,
knew the identity of the Jesus and twice called upon him, “Son of David, have
pity on me.” How did he know Jesus was the Messiah? How did a blind mind see
the truth so clearly? How could a beggar possess such rich knowledge? And,
conversely, how did so many people with sight remain blind? Why did the wealthy
and the powerful so often reject the riches of Christ?

Jesus simply said, “Call him.” His disciples then called
Bartimaeus, and he threw off his cloak—which represented his old life (cf. Rom.
13:12; Eph 4:22)—and came to Jesus. “Master,” he said, “I want to see.” Jesus
healed him and told him to “go your way.” And Bartimaeus followed the Messiah
on his way to Jerusalem, the Cross, and the Resurrection, the road of
gathering, exodus, and salvation.

(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the October 25, 2009, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)